I am by no means wealthy, not even close. My partner and I combined made less than $30,000 last year. Yet last year we spent 2 weeks in Hawai'i and 6 weeks in Europe. This year we are away for 12 weeks - spending 4 weeks in England, 4 weeks in Italy, and 4 weeks in Hungary. Here's how we do it without selling our souls (and all of our stuff)!

I used to be 100% mainstream. Blindly fumbling through life just trying to do what the system prescribed for me. You know, go to college, get married, get a good job, buy a house, a car, work your ass off every day, take a few long weekends off here and there, and hopefully have enough saved up so that I can retire someday. Maybe if I get lucky I’ll be able to travel to Europe for a couple weeks while I’m still young enough to enjoy it.

I crumpled that fucking suit up into a ball and tossed it on the front porch. In hindsight, I should've put a used condom or a bloody tampon or something super gross that would've just really made his head explode.

Now I was in a strangers house, googling divorce, making an appointment for an abortion, trying to find a place to live, and figuring out how long the money I had was going to last me (I had quit my job in prep to move to D.C.)

I always say I'm going to send out Christmas cards and then I never do. I did the same thing again this year. And I'm always like - oh I'm going to do one of those adorable "highlights of our year" newsletter type deals. And I never do.

You could train or learn or shadow or prep or practice or plan, but when the shit goes down it's basically never going to be how you think it's going to be. So just go for it. Figure it out as you go. Commit to always learning, growing, and changing. Do your best.

I didn't make pro/con lists, I didn't agonize over the what-ifs. I didn't have a certain amount of money saved as safety net first. Because it wasn't a question. Staying at my corporate job wasn't an option. The only way to go was forward.

Last summer, my girlfriend Katie and I stayed in Budapest, Hungary. While we were researching Hungarian society, we learned that sex work is legal and all sex workers are part of a union, are covered by state funded healthcare, receive regular checkups, testing, and other support from the government. Brothels or pimping is illegal, which allows all sex workers to remain in complete control of their situations and their money.

Over the past few years we have made four trips to Europe and have researched the process extensively. And it turns out that getting to Europe is actually pretty cheap. Before I had ever traveled there, I always thought the idea of planning a trip was a little daunting. I knew that lots of airlines flew to lots of different European cities, but how was I to know what was the best and cheapest way?

As a traveler, I had never heard of Couchsurfing until one summer I was planning a long, epic trip through Europe and couldn’t afford paying for a hotel or even a hostel for 87 straight days. Couchsurfing sounded way out there, and too good to be true – I can stay at a strangers house in the middle of Rome for free? And they won’t murder me? As it turns out – yes. Yes I could. And no – no they won’t.

For the last three years I have been an active Airbnb host and have met all kinds of amazing people, with the added bonus of covering a large chunk of my rent each month. It’s practically passive income!

This is probably the most common thing that friends approach me with. "I want to buy a new computer, what kind should I get?" The funny thing is, this question was relevant maybe 10 years ago, but today the hardware is so universal and standardized that what's "under the hood" hardly matters anymore.

This summer I spent one month in 3 different European cities: London {England, Perugia {Italy}, and Budapest {Hungary}. For anyone who has traveled long-term you know: it was a roller coaster of emotions and I learned a fucking lot about myself. Here are some reflections....

And just shut the fuck up before you say oh this is an opportunity to slow down or whatever the fuck. There are roughly 16 waking hours in any given day. I can only consciously chew my food or watch the sunset or meditate for so long. One month in a tiny hill town in Italy is way.too.long.